I attended the House Education Committee meeting on January 29, 2024. On the agenda was House Bill 4945.

The bill clarifies some language and cleans up some outstanding issues that have occurred with the HOPE Scholarship to this point.  In addition, a major point of the bill changes the calculation of appropriations for scholarship funding from the eligible number of students from prior years to basing appropriations on the estimated number of applicants in the next fiscal year. This probably means more funding will be included in the Hope scholarship funding going forward.

Other items in HB 4945 include strengthening and cleaning up  the language for HOPE scholarship students in terms of allowing them to participate in public school activities (athletics, etc.). The bill states that HOPE students will not be held to different requirements and standards. Some of our schools in certain counties have had some difficulties in this area. Hopefully, this bill will rectify those issues.

In addition, the bill contains language concerning the requirement that HOPE funds must be spent on K-12 students only; parents must notify the local school board if their student leaves the program and re-enters a public school; and reiterates the requirement that employees of vendors (our schools) undergo background checks.

One interesting note to mention is that Delegate Pushkin (D-Kanawha) proposed an amendment to the bill that would prohibit HOPE funds to be spent outside of West Virginia,  Only a very small percentage of HOPE funding is spent in neighboring states. Thankfully, his proposed amendment failed overwhelmingly.

HB 4945 was passed out of the House Education Committee by a large majority and will now go to the House Finance Committee.  One of our friends on House Finance stated yesterday that he does not anticipate any serious issues there. Once it is approved by Finance, it should move to the House Floor. 

There are some other HOPE bills that have been introduced in the House and Senate that also deal with HOPE issues. Some are similar to this that will probably not be needed if HB 4945 is passed. There are others that would remove the current restrictions for applicants. I will continue to follow these bills as well.